Poem of the Week, by Alison McGhee

Whether you’re a parent or not, everyone was once someone’s child. This one goes out to all of you.

Bargain – Alison McGhee

The newspaper reports that at twilight tonightVenus and Jupiter will conjoinin the southwestern sky,a fist and a half above the horizon.They won’t come together again for seventeen years.What the article does not say is that Mercury, thedark planet, will also be on hand.He’ll hover low, nearly invisible in a darkened sky.I stare out the kitchen window toward the sunset.

Seventeen years from now, wherewill I be?Mercury, Roman god of commerce and luck,let me propose a trade:Auburn hair, muscles that don’t ache, and a seven-minute mile.Here’s what I’ll give you in return:My recipe for Brazilian seafood stew, a talent forFrench-braiding, an excellent sense of smell andthe memory of having once kissed Sam W.

Then I see my girl across the room.She stands on a stool at the sink,washing her toy dishes andswaying to a whispered song,her dark curls a nimbus in the lamplight.The planets are coming together now.Minute by minute the time draws nigh for me to watch.Minute by minute my child wipes dry her redplastic knife, her miniature blue bowls.

Mercury, here’s another offer, a real one this time:Let her be.You can have it all in return,the salty stew, the braids, the excellent sense of smelland the softness of Sam’s mouth on mine.And my life. That too.All of it I give for this child, that seventeen years henceshe will stand in a distant kitchen, washing dishesI cannot see, humming a tune I cannot hear.